Fever
by fallen-chan
Summary: Once more, with feeling. Round and round they spin, a life for a life, but the scale will never balance again. •ℵ• AU •ℵ• character deaths •ℵ• mild gore


**Disclaimer:** I don't own anyone.

**A/N:** That general disclaimer still applies, of course.

**Summary:** Once more, with feeling. Round and round they spin, a life for a life, but the scale will never balance again. •ℵ• AU •ℵ• character deaths •ℵ• mild gore

०౦ംഠ०҆'˚'҅०ം◦∙ × ∙◦ം०҆'˚'҅०౦ംഠ०

There is something very cruel and tragic in life, you think. Zabuza's blood is very hot on your hand, soaking through your glove, but your fingers are very cold. Your eye hurts. The scar running through it aches. You open your mouth to say something but no words come out and you close it when Sakura screams so loud your ears hurt. The bridge is cracked beneath your feet and you remember giant trees toppling and a crushing urgency and the steady thrum of exhaustion as the ground split open before you. Sakura is still screaming. The stone cracks again when she hits the ground and Naruto is howling now, eyes flickering red to blue to red over and over.

You wonder if you are cursed.

There is a single-minded intensity in the way he tracks his prey, following drying blood. You hear a pained scream as Sakura's dies away and watch him drag a body back, nails buried in Haku's wrist. You see the white of bone in the other arm and the smear of blood left behind on the ground and you know you should say something. Your eye aches and burns and you think of Obito, crushed under rock.

You do nothing.

Sakura is crying but her fists clench as she stands and her foot slams into a bleeding stomach and comes away red. You want to not look but all you can think of is the very still body lying near the side of the bridge. You remember a cocky smirk and the iron conviction behind it and suddenly it is Obito all over again, only he is the teacher instead of the team-mate and there is nothing to salvage off a dead body. The thought drifts through your mind - was Minato-sensei ever too late? - and you shove it into the very big box of things you do not want to think about in your mind.

You wonder if you will ever not be late when it matters he most.

There are no more screams, only panting and angry snarls and growls and half-choked sobs. Naruto holds a bloody mess in place of a body and Sakura is still crying as her kunai plunges into what remains of Haku's eyes over and over and over. You see blood around Naruto's mouth and hear the crunch of bones when you take a step closer and realize with a chilling certainty that he is eating Haku's fingers one by one.

You can not help but think that it is very fitting for Zabuza's partner to die like this.

Your feet feel heavy as you walk over to Sasuke, lying on the bridge away from the carnage. There is something painful in the way he looks asleep. You see the bloody kunai half-buried in stone then and the two senbon lying next to his face. You see the twin holes in his eyes, neat little holes in the iris of each eye. Your eye aches and burns very hot and your entire body feels cold. You wonder how long Sasuke enjoyed his _Sharingan_, how long he reveled in its activation. You do not think it was ever long enough.

The world seems as though it is a very small place now. Your world is even smaller, just a cracked bridge and a dead body at your feet and carnage you vaguely wish you could join behind you and a memorial with your regrets etched into it somewhere very far and distant. Your face twists into a mask of cold dispassionate anger when you hear clapping and you preempt Sakura's whisper of "Gato" - which is repeated in a shrill scream and echoed in Naruto's roaring shout - and there is something very satisfying in the way the short man-vermin gurgles and coughs up blood as your Raikiri crackles inside his chest. You do not think it is overkill to use your signature jutsu to kill a civilian. Not this civilian. You see Sasuke's death in his greedy eyes and squeeze your hand and feel the blood gushing through your fingers and your smile is cold behind your mask.

Your world narrows again, to Sasuke's dead body and Sakura's fury and Naruto's raging bloodlust and the press of the Kyuubi's chakra. You let the dead body fall from your hand and watch the remnants of your team tear through mercenaries faster than paper and think that it is a fitting tribute to your former student, blood for blood until the bridge runs red. It is almost as bloody as the Uchiha Massacre (but there is a _meaning_ to this slaughter and it hums in the air).

It is very quiet now. You hear the _drip-drip-drip_ of blood on stone and turn away from the flood of _red_ and your eye throbs and pulses in time with the beating of your heart. You know what you are _supposed_ to do with a dead body and a _Kekkai Genkai_ but your fingers refuse to twitch, to form the seals, and you wonder if anyone will ever look at the name 'Uchiha Sasuke' and see more than a lost _Sharingan_ and the end of the Uchiha clan.

You do not want to know the answer.

०౦ംഠ०҆'˚'҅०ം◦∙ × ∙◦ം०҆'˚'҅०౦ംഠ०

The pale still body is already starting to decompose when they reach the gate but you carry it still and there is a subtle threat in your visible eye when you walk through the streets of the village. Sakura's fury still simmers behind you and it matches Naruto's wildfire flashes of raw anger and the three of you are a public spectacle long before you reach the Uchiha clan compound. When you feel chakra surging behind you and Sakura snaps, her voice hoarse and shrill above the whispers and backed by Naruto's low snarl, you turn long enough to see that there is no blood before continuing on your way.

You have never been fond of gossip.

When you come out, you see the white masks of ANBU against your students and your chakra surges to match theirs and your _Sharingan_ aches when you lift your hitai-ate but it still spins red-and-black. The ground is covered in spider-web cracks and you see dark stains that reek of fresh blood and lightning chakra crackles over your hand in a silent warning.

You do not want to lose what is left of your students. Not now, not ever.

०౦ംഠ०҆'˚'҅०ം◦∙ × ∙◦ം०҆'˚'҅०౦ംഠ०

There is a new name etched into the stone of the memorial, clumsily written and carved in by claws. You smile behind your mask and your Raikiri cuts through a man's heart and the blood splashes red on black stone. The ground fragments to your side and you know that somewhere nearby the Kyuubi's chakra is spiraling upwards and you let yourself drown in it, _Sharingan_ spinning.

Blood fills your mouth and you tear your mask down to spit it out and snap your gates open, one after another, until your chakra burns red around you. The sound of your own heartbeat drowns out Sakura's scream, cut off, and lightning crackles fresh over your hands when the trees topple around you and limbs of pure chakra lash out wildly.

The stolen papers burn in the pocket of your _jounin_ vest and your stolen eye aches and burns and spins wildly and you think this is a fitting tribute to the boy who was once Sasuke, the boy with red_red_ eyes and a dream born of selfishness and fear and stupidity run rampant until it killed an entire clan.


End file.
